Silk Racing and other Stories
Dave Roper The First American Racer to win a TT
My brother just found your website and showed it to me. I believe I have the second Silk sold, probably 700S/1/2. I'm at my brother house now for our Thanksgiving holiday and I'll have to check the engine and frame #s when I get home. I'm the one riding the bike in your Slideshow 1 [001+(2).jpg]. The bike I'm riding in that photo was the 'production prototype'. At the time, I worked for a shipyard in the U.S. that built nuclear submarines and I was chosen to be part of a team to do a mini overhaul on a U.S. sub at a U.S. base in Holy Loch, Scotland in Aug, 1974. I went over a couple of weeks early and bought a new MK IIA Norton Commando Interstate from LLoyd Bros. in Hamilton, Scotland. I rode it down to Liverpool and got on the ferry for the I.O.M and the Manx G.P. On the ferry, I saw these two strange bikes which I didn't recognize at all. After the MGP, there was a road test of the prototype Silk in MotorCycle News and I realized that's what I saw on the ferry, along with a Scott Special. The road tester raved about the Silk. Overhaul over and back in the States, there was an article by Jim Greening in Cycle Magazine about the Silk and I thought "they're really going to do it". In early 1975, when I found out I was going back to Scotland to do another couple of overhauls, I got in touch with Silks and eventually sent them a substantial deposit and ordered a 700S. By the time I left for Scotland (around the 1st of May, '75, if I recall correctly), Hugh Cundell at Silk's had let me know that they were running behind schedule and my bike would be ready until a couple of weeks after I arrive. At the end of May. the union went on strike and the company sent all the hourly personnel home to the U.S., but I elected to stay in Britain and went down to Derby and worked along side the Lads at Silk Engineering, Darley Abbey. Derby. The prototype I had seen on the ferry 9months earlier was gone by then. The cyl. casting was porous and leaked and a mounting lug had broken off the crankcase. They had made a 'production prototype' incorporating a number of 'improvements'. These included an Amal MKII carb in place of the MKI, a Hyvo primary chain in place of a single row roller chain, the Luminition ignition in place of points, and Silk's own oil pump in place of a Pilgrim pump. But, apparently this 'production prototype was worse than the 1st prototype in just about every respect. It was slower, noisier, vibrated more and used more fuel. When I arrived, they were trying to figure out why. I tested and ran errands on this bike daily and used it on the weekends to go spectate at bike races around England. My bike wasn't completed until August. My memory is that Alan Forsythe of Furminite, an investor in Silk Engineering got the first production bike and I got the second. The strike at the shipyard was still ongoing when I finally got my Silk and I rode it up to Scotland to pick up my mail and my plane ticket home. I had entered it in two club races, the first at Cadwell Park on the Sat. and the second at Darley Moor on the Sunday. At Cadwell, I managed to run off the track on the first lap of practice and tip over at about 5 MPH, breaking the shift linkage. I managed to get that fix and ran my first race. But, in the 2nd race, the bolts holding the gearbox sprocket sheared at the start. I had ridden the bike to the circuit and now I was stranded, but Bob Stevenson from Spondon was there racing the Sparton, and he gave me a ride back the 'the works'. I stole the sprocket of the prototype and put it on my bike and made it to Darley Moor. In practice there, someone fell right in front of me and I hit their bike and crashed. Again, I was able to get it straighten out and ran my two races. Then, I had the bike crated up and shipped back to New York. On Halloween eve., a car made the left turn in front of me with out signaling and I drove my Silk into the side of a Volvo at about 65 MPH. This broke the radius and ulna of my right arm and the yokes and oil pump of the Silk. Eventually, my arm and the Silk healed and I raced the bike at circuits in New Hampshire, Connecticut, and New York for a year or two until a piston broke and a chunk of it went through the intake manifold and wiped out the other piston. I decided this wasn't a sensible bike to race and put it back to street trim, but haven't really used it since then. It's on my long list of bike projects.
Please see his site at
daveroperracing.blogspot.co.uk
My brother just found your website and showed it to me. I believe I have the second Silk sold, probably 700S/1/2. I'm at my brother house now for our Thanksgiving holiday and I'll have to check the engine and frame #s when I get home. I'm the one riding the bike in your Slideshow 1 [001+(2).jpg]. The bike I'm riding in that photo was the 'production prototype'. At the time, I worked for a shipyard in the U.S. that built nuclear submarines and I was chosen to be part of a team to do a mini overhaul on a U.S. sub at a U.S. base in Holy Loch, Scotland in Aug, 1974. I went over a couple of weeks early and bought a new MK IIA Norton Commando Interstate from LLoyd Bros. in Hamilton, Scotland. I rode it down to Liverpool and got on the ferry for the I.O.M and the Manx G.P. On the ferry, I saw these two strange bikes which I didn't recognize at all. After the MGP, there was a road test of the prototype Silk in MotorCycle News and I realized that's what I saw on the ferry, along with a Scott Special. The road tester raved about the Silk. Overhaul over and back in the States, there was an article by Jim Greening in Cycle Magazine about the Silk and I thought "they're really going to do it". In early 1975, when I found out I was going back to Scotland to do another couple of overhauls, I got in touch with Silks and eventually sent them a substantial deposit and ordered a 700S. By the time I left for Scotland (around the 1st of May, '75, if I recall correctly), Hugh Cundell at Silk's had let me know that they were running behind schedule and my bike would be ready until a couple of weeks after I arrive. At the end of May. the union went on strike and the company sent all the hourly personnel home to the U.S., but I elected to stay in Britain and went down to Derby and worked along side the Lads at Silk Engineering, Darley Abbey. Derby. The prototype I had seen on the ferry 9months earlier was gone by then. The cyl. casting was porous and leaked and a mounting lug had broken off the crankcase. They had made a 'production prototype' incorporating a number of 'improvements'. These included an Amal MKII carb in place of the MKI, a Hyvo primary chain in place of a single row roller chain, the Luminition ignition in place of points, and Silk's own oil pump in place of a Pilgrim pump. But, apparently this 'production prototype was worse than the 1st prototype in just about every respect. It was slower, noisier, vibrated more and used more fuel. When I arrived, they were trying to figure out why. I tested and ran errands on this bike daily and used it on the weekends to go spectate at bike races around England. My bike wasn't completed until August. My memory is that Alan Forsythe of Furminite, an investor in Silk Engineering got the first production bike and I got the second. The strike at the shipyard was still ongoing when I finally got my Silk and I rode it up to Scotland to pick up my mail and my plane ticket home. I had entered it in two club races, the first at Cadwell Park on the Sat. and the second at Darley Moor on the Sunday. At Cadwell, I managed to run off the track on the first lap of practice and tip over at about 5 MPH, breaking the shift linkage. I managed to get that fix and ran my first race. But, in the 2nd race, the bolts holding the gearbox sprocket sheared at the start. I had ridden the bike to the circuit and now I was stranded, but Bob Stevenson from Spondon was there racing the Sparton, and he gave me a ride back the 'the works'. I stole the sprocket of the prototype and put it on my bike and made it to Darley Moor. In practice there, someone fell right in front of me and I hit their bike and crashed. Again, I was able to get it straighten out and ran my two races. Then, I had the bike crated up and shipped back to New York. On Halloween eve., a car made the left turn in front of me with out signaling and I drove my Silk into the side of a Volvo at about 65 MPH. This broke the radius and ulna of my right arm and the yokes and oil pump of the Silk. Eventually, my arm and the Silk healed and I raced the bike at circuits in New Hampshire, Connecticut, and New York for a year or two until a piston broke and a chunk of it went through the intake manifold and wiped out the other piston. I decided this wasn't a sensible bike to race and put it back to street trim, but haven't really used it since then. It's on my long list of bike projects.
Please see his site at
daveroperracing.blogspot.co.uk